With little campaign time left ahead of Tuesday's primary election, Republican gubernatorial hopeful Kirk Dillard on Sunday took aim at front-runner Bruce Rauner for alleged questionable business practices, his relationship with Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and for being “out of touch” with regular voters.

An estimated 100 supporters came to see Dillard, his running mate Rep. Jil Tracy, R-Quincy, and former Gov. Jim Edgar at the Knights of Columbus Hall in Springfield. The stop was part of a two-day, nine-city “fly-around.”

“People are catching on to the fact that Bruce Rauner is a social liberal, and a vacation buddy and a member of Rahm Emanuel's inner circle,” Dillard said. “And buyers better beware. They better know who Bruce Rauner is. He has a ton of scandals in his business background with many people that were his associates in federal penitentiaries. We've been down that road with Rod Blagojevich before.”

Dillard disputed Rauner's claim to be a political outsider.

“He's an insider to the max. He's the worst kind of insider — the one that does the buying,” he said.

Despite Rauner's front-runner status and a campaign war chest that includes more than $6 million of his own money, Dillard said his campaign is peaking at the right time.

Notable endorsements from teachers unions and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees injected the Dillard campaign with badly needed cash that he used for radio and television ad time to compete with Rauner, who has dominated the airwaves throughout the race.

“Like an NBA basketball game, I've always just wanted to be in this thing in the last two minutes, and we are surging. We have the energy and the other team is starting to suck wind,” Dillard said.

He also took a swipe at the other two candidates in the four-man race, calling state Sen. Bill Brady of Bloomington and state Treasurer Dan Rutherford of Chenoa “unelectable.”

“We're the only team that can beat Pat Quinn in the fall. If you want change and you're a Democrat, an independent or a Republican, Jil Tracy and Kirk Dillard are the only team that can bring that change,” Dillard said.

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